Dance exhibition

Last fall I took a salsa class at the local casa de cultura, like a commuity center. Like every group, we were supposed to give an end-of-semester public presentation, but somehow it didn't happen. Some of our friends continued with the class this semester, and their presentation was yesterday! Of course we went to go watch, and even though we showed up late, we were lucky and caught the last song of their show.



Also, random story, but I was walking down the street yesterday and saw a couple of "wild" marijuana plants growing in an empty lot about a block from an elementary school. Yeah, that was interesting, since it wasn't like they were being cultivated for drugs or anyone was sitting next to them smoking, but also no one really cared that they were there.

Salsa and Hiking

Last Saturday was a fun salsa and cumbia dancing night with the group from my old salsa class. I haven't continued with the classes, but I have gotten more practice in just regular social situations. It was fun to see my friends again, and hopefully now that the holiday seasons are over, we will have more get-togethers.



On Sunday, some friends and I went hiking up a local hill. Apparently, just two years ago it was pretty undeveloped and much better forested. Now, however, there are fields all the way up, random burning (preparation for more fields, I assume), and expensive housing developments right at the base. Here is the view of Popo, from the top of the hill.

Dance Party

My salsa class had a get together last night at one of the student's house--her sister takes another class (general "ballroom dance"), and so she invited her classmates too. It was pretty fun, but what really got me was that the first couple of songs were Texas line dance songs!! I think this picture was to the Spanish version of "Achy Breaky Heart."



This entire weekend is also the Mexican version of Halloween (part of the Day of the Dead celebrations); it is nowhere near as organized as in the US, where kids in each neighborhood only come out on a certain day at a certain hour. Here, kids are in the streets, dressed up and asking for candy or money wherever and whenever. These two kids--my salsa teacher's kids--came to class on Thursday.

Latin Danza

Yesterday I had the chance to go watch a dance show funded by a government grant. It was really good! They mixed together various styles (like hip-hop, salsa, tango, etc.), with couple dances and choreographed pieces.



At the end, they even had a scripted, Bollywood style part where some "audience members" got up on stage and did a song with the cast! And I swear the song is a Spanish version of I Will Survive...

Food and Guitars

Earlier this week we had a birthday party at a coworker's house. We ordered pizza from Domino's, and guess what, it came with hot sauce on the side! It was actually pretty good with the sauce, and after I tried it, I had to use it on all the slices I ate.



On Wednesday a couple of us went to a free guitar concert by a talented Mexican guitarist, Cristina Macías. She is currently studying abroad in Italy on a fellowship, and she played some amazing classical songs.

Random updates

This last week the Peace Corps coordinator for my program came to visit. He met with the managers and counterparts in my office to try and ferret out real feedback on my service so far. The challenge for most of us is that the local culture is kind of anti-feedback...for example, in the US, I could ask my boss how I was doing and what I could do better at (communication, teamwork, etc). Here, whenever I ask that question, I always get "you're doing everything just great!" Right. No one wants to offend you. So the program coordinators kind of act as a neutral third-party, with the hopes that the counterparts will be more open and honest with them. In reality, I think everything that came out was still sugarcoated (to counterbalance my overly negative point of view) because the people in my office don't want to lose the prestige of having a volunteer. I did, however, get some good tips on things to try that might help me integrate into my office better.

This weekend also started my adventure to find non-work related activities. I took a placement test for a Spanish for Foreigners class at a local university. I did not do so hot on the grammar part, but since I can speak decently, the teacher put me into the Advanced 1 class! I will be starting this week--two nights a week, after work. I also went to find the local Casa de la Cultura, and found out that they will be offering acoustic guitar lessons on Saturday mornings, starting in February. This was enough inspiration that I whipped out the guitar and practiced on Sunday, for the first time in months. Later on Sunday, I took my first salsa class at a dance school. It was tough! My feet just do not seem to stay coordinated with themselves or the rest of my body, even without throwing in the music. Plus, I couldn't quite understand all the Spanish that people were throwing around...